"As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution."--...

"Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the film's release, this is the definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, including the inside account of how director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke created this cinematic masterpiece. Regarded as a masterpiece today, 2001: A Space Odyssey received mixed reviews on its 1968 release. Despite the success of Dr. Strangelove, director...

Traces the life and work of Van Gogh using superb full-color photography to bring the artist's work to life and to explore the conditions and motivations that inspired it

"Hard Rain ranges over thirty years of Bob Dylan's recordings, films, and concerts to deliver astute insights into - and sometimes heretical judgements of - his prodigious corpus of work. This updated edition includes a new epilogue that examines Dylan's thirtieth anniversary celebration in 1992; his albums Good As I Been to You, World Gone Wrong, and Time Out of Mind: his 1997 performance before the Pope; and his Grammy Award-winning comeback."--Jacket....

Reproductions and text present critical commentary on the artist and his work.

Rilke's prayerful responses to the French master's beseeching art For a long time nothing, and then suddenly one has the right eyes. Virtually every day in the fall of 1907, Rainer Maria Rilke returned to a Paris gallery to view a Cezanne exhibition. Nearly as frequently, he wrote dense and joyful letters to his wife, Clara Westhoff, expressing his dismay before the paintings and his ensuing revelations about art and life. Rilke was knowledgeable...

The quintessential Romantic, Lord Byron produced some of the most daring poetry of his time, collected here in this revised edition -- the only widely available selection to include his own notes on the same page as the poetry.

"Richard Wagner (1813-1883) is one of the most influential--and also one of the most controversial--composers in the history of music. Over the course of his long career, he produced a stream of spellbinding works that challenged musical convention through their richness and tonal experimentation, ultimately paving the way for modernism. This book presents an in-depth but easy-to-read overview of Wagner's life, work and times. It considers a wide...